


Of Wits and Weariness

by hirohamadugh



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Ranger
Genre: 5+1 Things, Aria makes cameos but isnt a main character!, Developing Relationship, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Lots of sarcasm, Not Beta Read, Rated T for swearing, Sarcasm, Slice of Life, Solana as game's protagonist, i dont see them as 16?, i know pokemons whole thing is a child saving the world but that still seems young to me, mostly teasing jokes and hint dropping, not overly romantic until last chapter, so theyre 19-20 here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27164806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hirohamadugh/pseuds/hirohamadugh
Summary: Five times Lunick and Solana undermined the severity of a situation through sarcasm + one time they didn't. [T for language, going to be 6 chapters]
Relationships: Hinata | Solana & Kazuki | Lunick, Hinata | Solana/Kazuki | Lunick
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

Of all the hundreds of things on Solana’s Ranger-Bucket-List: nursing an orphaned Pokémon, reuniting a lost child with their parent, being given the honor of invitation into one of Professor Hastings’ lab presentations… the bullet point of “returning to the Fall City sewers” was notably _absent_. 

The day had started all too regular- 7:30. Wake up in her dorm at the Ringtown Ranger Base. 8:00. Meander down to the commissary with the rest of the base trickling in for breakfast before they were slated to be on the clock. Intermingle with the 3rd shift rangers, who were usually grabbing a bite to eat before bed after a long night of watch duty. 8:15. Notice Lunick’s sorry little behind is still MIA, and go back upstairs to the dorms to have Plusle and Minun tag-team jolt him awake. Drag him down to eat something as well. 8:45. Report to Spenser for pre-shift briefing. 9:00. Patrol Lyra Forest with Lunick indefinitely until either their meal break time or a situation arises.

It was slow. It was mundane. Yet Solana loved it nonetheless; she’d been so go-go-go her first few weeks that it was nice to have a small lull in activity. It allowed her time to think, to reflect on how there was next to nothing that she wouldn’t do for this found family of hers in the Ringtown Rangers: each time she passed the same signpost on the same beat-down patrol path in Lyra Forest, she silently thanked her younger self for having written all those letters over the years, and thanked Spenser for taking the chance on her to get her here today.

Which was usually followed by a bony elbow in the side, courtesy of her best friend and assigned mission partner.

“Head in the clouds, Sunshine?”

The term of endearment was rather anything but: it held a teasing undertone, and was truthfully just a long-running, simply bad joke that he’d made on a whim a few months ago in reference to the solar implications and meaning of her name. And he stuck with it, bringing it out again every once in a while just to spice things up. “Your eyes get all hazed over sometimes when we walk around here, and I can’t patrol the whole forest by myself!!” His words were dramatic, and they made Solana laugh, returning the playful shove into his side and nearly teetering the Minus Pokémon right off his shoulder. 

“You can, and you have.” She pointed out, rolling her eyes in amusement at his supposed complaint. “We both know these woods so well we could patrol them alone _and_ with our eyes closed. You’re just lucky you’re paired with such _excellent_ company like myself to keep you on your toes while you do so.”

Before Lunick got the chance to deny, both of their stylers pinged in the familiar tone that denoted it was a message from the base pertaining to official business.

“No,” Solana groaned upon reading it, which was wildly contrasted by her best friend’s whooping “YES!” at the same time.

“Finally, some more active duty!” He exclaimed, a big lopsided and toothy smile across his face. “C’mon, Sol!! We’re already almost at Krokka Tunnel, let’s not even bother with the Dragonite Bus!” 

Dragging her by the wrist, he bounded like a kid in a candy store, which was awfully strange for someone who just got assigned a mission to help Fall City’s waste management department fix some shotty infrastructure in the _sewers_. 

They arrived at Fall City’s base not long thereafter, immediately saluting and joining the lines for briefing in the base lobby. There, they could see that a handful of other Ringtown rangers had been flown in, along with seven or so of the city’s own rangers, and even a stray Summerland recruit reporting for assistance as well. While to others it may have seemed like overkill, Fiore Rangers tended to operate in an all-hands-on-deck fashion during peacetimes, and Fall City _really_ prides itself upon its waterworks, making this a priority issue. Joel was quick to explain the situation once everyone was present and at attention. The group was to split into four subunits, each spearheaded by a waste management liaison that would be dictating the rangers on where to assist and repair within the different operating zones of the sewage network. The teams were pretty evenly distributed by rank and dispatched, which meant Solana was not partnered with neither Aria nor Lunick, as the three were among the most high-ranking and capable rangers in the southwest of the region and therefore too valuable to not utilize over the largest area possible to get the job done. While these very waterways had been where she and Aria had their terribly rocky start a few months ago, the snooty blonde had come around over time to ultimately become one of her most trusted allies in dire situations, and despite still being frenimies, catching up would have at least made the return to sewage work a little more palatable. 

That said, given her current situation, perhaps it was best after all that Aria wasn’t around, because Solana sure as hell would have _never_ heard the end of it.

Don’t get me wrong- the maintenance work started out well. A vast majority of the faulty infrastructure in the division of tunnels Solana had been assigned to was due to unchecked fixtures that had simply given out over time from negligence in keeping the operative pieces up to date. Most of the work had just been helping carry large industrial pieces to the proper areas in which they needed to go- physically demanding, but ultimately nothing too difficult or troublesome, and definitely went a bit quicker once she’d found a wild Feraligatr and convinced it to assist in their cause as well. Once the heavy team-lifting pieces had all been relocated to their proper areas, the various rangers had split up to tackle a wide variety of smaller tasks. A couple of Raticate captured here to snip off the beyond-rusted old equipment, a few Tangela there to cross the waterway without unnecessary climbing, and multiple Corphish that had been scuttling at her heels affectionately for _hours_ now, simply so they’d stop charging her every time she re-entered a pipeline to get a new piece to deliver to the waste management employees she was working with: it was all running relatively smoothly. That is, until Solana made the very unfortunate discovery that rusted spigots and outflow pipes were not the only infrastructure issues that needed to be addressed.

On the outskirts of the zone of which her assigned squadron had been working within, the blue haired girl took an unassuming step onto a spot in the walkway that simply looked like it had a different texture than where she’d been standing before- nothing out of the ordinary, just switching from concrete to grate. Probably for drainage in the case of storm surges or the like. Definitely not because it was structurally unsound and immediately cracked upon her and Plusle’s weight, dropping her at least ten feet deep into a slimy, damp, effective concrete ditch.

A few expletives flew from beneath her breath as she drew her gloved hand out of the slick grime that had cultivated in the unchecked drainage system, a disgusted grimace twisting her lips as she rose to her feet and tried to wipe off any of the unexplained slippery film onto her uniform instead of her skin. The befriended Corphish skittered over and peered down at her, unable to help more than just staring and bubbling at the mouth. Great. Excellent! Fantastic. This was fine, she could get out on her own. Not a problem, this was exactly why Rangers were required to do regular strength training, to be able to climb and hoist themselves out of predicaments just like this one. She just had to find some footholds… on this… perfectly rectangular and slippery concrete basin.

Letting out a sigh, Solana first scooped up her partner Pokémon, lifted herself to tiptoes, and hoisted the Plusle up above her head enough so that he could jump out onto the normal platform with ease. From there, she began trying to wedge herself within a corner, tight enough so the force she was exerting on either wall was stabilizing enough to where she could spider-crawl her way up; but her _many_ attempts of this approach all had proven fruitless, with each getting more pathetic than the last as her gloves and shoe soles got thoroughly coated in the damp slime film. Letting out a frustrated growl, the 19 year old kicked the shallow puddle pooled at the bottom of her concrete jail cell, watching the water spray and then recollect in the middle of the basin.

At some point, Plusle had begun scampering back and forth along the side of the wall above her, desperately wanting to help his person but having no means of doing so. He whimpered out a few pleas upon seeing her begin to stalk whilst trying to think up a new plan of escape, but she only shook her head at his suggestions. “I don’t need to call for help! I’m a Rank 7 ranger, dammit, and this isn’t even a dangerous mission!!” 

The Pokémon whined a bit more, and the three water type onlookers shuffled around in support of the electric mouse’s suggestions, but Solana was simply too stubborn to listen. It was her fatal flaw in the field: the inability to accept when outside assistance is required on seemingly small things. She felt she should be able to handle them by herself.

Shaking out all her limbs to loosen up, Solana’s eyes lit aglow with a wave of determination, pressing her body back up against the far wall as closely as she could without dirtying herself further to give her the maximum distance possible to gain speed: if she were lucky, it would be enough to launch her up to even allow just her palms to lay flat on the floor above. That would be enough, certainly she could hoist her body weight up from that position, even without adequate footholds. Taking a sharp inhale, she took three lightning-fast steps before leaping up, even so much as getting a hand up to where she was hoping for, but her gloves were so slippery at this point that they slid right back down the wall, collapsing all her momentum down into a crumpled ball.

But now she knew it was possible.

Shaking herself off once again, the girl returned to her starting position and wiped her hands on the front of her uniform over and over excessively, trying to give herself as much grip as possible, but it wasn’t the gloves she needed to have worried about this time. She began her twitch-movement of breaking into a 3 step run and immediately lost her footing within the puddle, her leg slipping out right from underneath her and sending her face-first into the very hard concrete below. Solana let out a yelp instinctively, and took the fall in a roll, minimizing impact as she’d been trained to do countless times back at base. While the slip wasn’t nearly as detrimental as it could have been if she hadn’t braced herself, it certainly did not go without a few ripening bruises. “Oh, come on,” she complained quietly, before hearing footsteps come into earshot and hurry in her direction. This was followed by Plusle jumping and squeaking excitedly, and before the footfalls even reached the well to reveal their maker, Solana knew exactly who it was, and a mixture of relief and irritability flooded her face as an oh-so-familiar smug face peeked down onto her, followed by two very cheerful electric partner Pokémon.

Turns out, each team had been given a different issue to tackle. Solana’s? Rust. Aria’s? Pollution. Lunick’s? …… Walkway stability.

He couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin off his lips, dropping down to lay on the ground with his head rested on his palm, propped up by his elbow and kicking his legs back like a schoolgirl on the phone. “Aww,” Lunick cooed patronizingly at his best friend, her embarrassed flush only making his satisfied grin grow wider. “Is wittle Sowana stuck in a wittle hole?”

Scowling, and hating whenever he had the upper hand in things like these, Solana grabbed a fistful of the slime and flung it up at him, which he rolled away from and dodged with ease, even so much as laughing at her frustrations. The thing was, this wasn’t uncommon for them: both were constantly saving the other’s ass, whether it be in the field or out. They’d been in too many situations that they wouldn’t have gotten through without the other to count, and over time, had begun to foster a dynamic of playful teasing in an everlasting arms race for the last laugh. In real, dangerous situations, it was a way to cope. In less life-threatening ones like these, it was just a bit of fun.

She all-but growled at him when he rolled back into view with that same stupid smile on his stupid face, crossing her arms over her chest indignantly. “I am _not_ stuck,” the girl insisted, turning away from him with a huff. “I just so happen to like it down here.”

Struggling to contain his peals of laughter, Lunick tapped his fingers along the edge. “Uh-huh. Wellll, I’m just _saying_ , you know from an _outsider’s point of view,_ you sure _look_ stuck to me…”

Solana whirled around on the balls of her feet, pointing up at him with a huff. “I’ll have you know I can get out of here any time I want!” She snapped, and he relaxed even further, eyes half lidded in bemusement at seeing her get all riled up at his oh so obvious baiting. 

“Oh!” Lunick dropped the hand he’d been resting on, perking up a bit to clap his hands together. “Well, my apologies for assuming! That’s great to hear, I actually heard from Joel that all of our units are headed back to the Fall City base, and we could _really_ use you reporting in on time and all… So if you could get to it on getting out of there, that would be great~!”

She snarled and lunged up at his direction, trying to seek purchase and grapple onto him but to no avail. She was tired from having exerted herself trying for all this time, and he was chipper as ever, and slipped right out of her grip with ease. 

“Oooh,” he sympathized pathetically. “Bummer!! You were so close!!! Man, I really _felt_ that one was the one, you know?!”

The girl was fantasizing about knocking in all 32 of those pearly whites that he was flashing in a wide smug grin, balling her fists at her sides. “You’re going to be ‘ _really feeling_ ’ my fist when I get out of here.” She threatened, and he sat up with a chuckle, holding his hands up half heartedly in surrender.

“Alright, alright,” Lunick compromised, “I won’t make you suffer any longer.” He looked over his shoulder, where Solana pieced together that his own friend Pokémon stood. “Drowzee, can you lift my friend here back up onto solid ground?”

Two of the yellow and brown Pokémon appeared in Solana’s field of vision, and immediately began to swing their arms, casting a neon pink field of psychic energy down into the basin and surrounding her weary body. She felt her body enter a state of weightlessness as the two Pokémon lifted her off of the ground, suspended within their bubble. The fact that the psychic types of question were Drowzee, specifically, caused her eyes to fall shut in an instant as the wild Pokémon hand-delivered her right into Lunick’s lap, before releasing their mental grip and scampering off back to their natural environment. He gingerly helped her up, placing her back on her feet as the effects of the power began to wear away in the Pokémon’s absence. She yawned profoundly as Plusle jumped up onto her shoulder and nuzzled in, happy to be reunited.

“… Could have… done it myself…” Solana slurred sleepily, rubbing her eyes with the back of her wrist, since it was one of the only clean spots on her.

“Mmhm,” Lunick placidly agreed, but a hint of a snicker bubbled in the back of his throat. “But it’s getting late, and we should head back and report, don’t you think?”

His best friend nodded and yawned again, waking up a bit more by the second. “We definitely should, we don’t want to face the wrath of Ar-“

“THERE YOU TWO ARE!” Speak of the devil, and she will come. Lunick and Solana both snapped their heads toward the source of the voice, and the unmistakable boot heel clicks even in this environment. She huffed, tapping the toe of her shoe impatiently once she’d come into view, throwing her arms out in exasperation. “Now is not the time to be having one of your little lovebird moments! I’ve been sent out to come collect you both, and this is what I find?!” 

Solana smiled, stepping forward and crossing the gap between them, slugging a sticky arm around the blonde’s shoulder. “It’s good to see you too, Aria.” Which was met with the Fall City Ranger’s shriek, shimmying out of the affectionate grip.

“EW!! What in the Distortion World _is that_ , and why would you _touch me with it!!!_ ” Both Lunick and Solana beamed at the reaction, which only made Aria scowl. “You are _infuriating_ , Hinata. And Lunick, you’re no better, but _together_ , you two are both _so much worse._ ”

“Aww,” the two Ringtown rangers cooed in unison, both having a new target to tease that wasn’t each other, and absolutely pouncing on the opportunity. “Aria, that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me!” Lunick teasingly threw his arms out, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Bring it in!”

“Aww, group hug!” Solana cheered, grabbing the blonde and sandwiching her between them two of them, much to her absolute horror and shrill screaming. 

“FOR THE RECORD!!” Aria squealed, writhing to free herself from the Ringtown sandwich. “I HATE WORKING WITH YOU!!”

Both Lunick and Solana laughed, their partner Pokémon jumping in all the excitement. “We love you too, Aria,” Solana offered for the both of them, shaking her head with a grin. “Now let’s go. Don’t want to keep Joel waiting any longer than he already has, right?”


	2. Chapter 2

Solana leapt onto a dark tile from the one she was on, watching the ground that had just been below her feet glow an ominous pinkish red hue. A few seconds of difference would have made everything. Sprinting back onto the steel blue metal flooring that ran throughout the rest of the hideaway base, she pressed herself back against a doorway, hoping the frame would conceal her body enough where no one who may glance down the hall would even realize she was there.

Bait. She’d been sent here bait. All five of them had- her, Chris, Freddie, Aria, and Lunick. Some of Fiore’s most capable Rangers, save for the Leaders, cut loose into the Go-Rock Squad’s hideout deep within Sekra Range after some of them had been the very same trio to sniff it out in the first place. Told to go crazy, go stupid, and sew some chaos and confusion as Spenser brought up the rear and swiped back the Super Styler prototype. All had split up near the hidden base’s entryway, knowing it would do no good for their mission should they all be caught and accosted together early, as doing so would make them a much easier target. No, they had to split up, to draw the Go-Rock Squad’s lines of defense as deeply and divided as possible, to drive them back into the furthest corners of the base so Spenser could speedily and divisively take back what rightfully belonged to Union all this time. 

_Zzzt, zzzzt, zzzt, zzzt,_ the tiles buzzed rhythmically, seeming to emanate in a pattern. Her Plusle spurt off some sparks from its cheeks with a small squeak, offering and awaiting command from its human to short circuit the entire security system so she could just walk past the glowing tiles with ease, but Solana shook her head, waving a hand to dismiss the thought. She didn’t want to actually disable the security system- as backwards as that sounded- because she wanted to prevent raising any flags in th Go-Rock system so early. She was hoping to get a bit deeper before her reign of terror on the base began. She was just lucky the base was so shotty and unkempt that its security malfunctioned frequently enough that she had a potential opportunity to slip past undetected with the right maneuvers.

Left, right, up, off- the girl studied the pattern in which the alarm sensors fizzled off, each staying down for a few valuable seconds as it automatically began the reboot process. Scooping her small Pokémon up off the ground, Solana deposited the Plusle safely atop her shoulders for security and insurance that they’d move together as one being, and neither would accidentally lag behind on a sensor as they moved, blowing their cover. Waiting through one more cycle of the sensors sputtering off and subsequently back on again, the teal haired Ranger pushed her way off the steel door jamb, deftly and nimbly hopping amongst the sensor tiles one by one as they shut off, the bright red glow of reactivation licking at the heels of her uniform boots each time she moved. Within seconds, she’d successfully navigated across the patch of trigger sensor flooring, and let out a collective sigh of relief that lasted exactly as long as it took her to round the sharp turn of the crooked hallway and be met with another patch of glowing tiles.

At least knowing this time what she was in for, Solana was a quick study in picking up plans of attack for the next three patches of alarm sensor flooring, and managed to surpass all of them without a hitch. 

Pushing open the heavy door into the next room, the alarms blared enough to drown out the thoughts of anything else besides a few expletives hissed beneath her breath- had she set that off?! Solana stared at the door blankly, which was wash in red light that flashed from overhead in time with the noise, then looked around frantically, searching for a spot to take cover in case security began to triangulate to this position. Deciding to screw it all- that this was her job anyways- the Ranger shoved through the doorway and charged deeper into the base, sliding on the railing down some stairs and surging through a large mechanical frame that snapped shut behind her, with no visible handles or way of opening it again.

Well, at least she knew now they couldn’t kick her _out_ of the base.

Ripping her styler from its holster, Solana opened the live communications function and spoke into the mic connected to her earpiece. “Roll call,” she commanded, wanting a pulse on all her colleagues since seemingly not a single Go-Rock Squad member was pursuing her, after all. “Hinata still live.”

“ _Chris,_ ” the Wintown Ranger grunted, making himself marked present and accounted for.

“ _Fuchi, same._ ” Freddie’s voice popped through the transceiver, following Solana’s precedence of announcing themselves by last name.

After a beat of nothing, Solana spoke again. “...Aria? Lunick? You guys still with us?”

A few moments of tense silence passed, before the blonde Fall City Ranger’s voice pitched into their frequency loud and clear. “ _Tch. It was the bonehead partner of yours, Solana._ ” Even though she couldn’t see Aria, she just _knew_ the statement had been punctuated with a toss of the hair. “ _We both went left at the beginning, then split up, but I ran back into him just as he and his rat stepped on one of those tiles. My position was nearly compromised, you know._ ”

“ _And where are you now? Is it still?_ ” Freddie pushed, only caring about the details, and not whether it had inconvenienced Aria. 

“ _No, they didn’t see me. I’m still in the eastward wing. Took Hinata’s boyfriend though. I was too busy hiding and ensuring my ability to continue the mission at hand to trail._ ”

Solana rolled her eyes at the jab, and cut in before anyone else had any smart remarks to add to it. “He’s a big boy. He’ll be fine. Continue on, we can circle back and collect any captured after we recover the Super Styler. Over.”

Hearing a chorus of “ _10-4_ ”s from her colleagues, Solana dropped the styler to her side, beginning to survey the room she’d been trapped in. Before her were two glowing, Gardevoir-green pedestals, with neither having any characteristics denoting what was beyond them. A red pill/blue pill ultimatum. Either could lead her straight to the Quads, or drop her in a horde of grunts- and there was only one way to find out what was beyond them.

Stepping onto the one to her right, she was teleported to an unfamiliar room: still seemingly within the base, given its steely decor, but with nothing but a few abandoned tables of unintelligible notes to give her any sense of direction. Dropping the leaflet she’d picked up and been inspecting back onto the table with a sigh, the flashing of a Ralts disappearing and reappearing in the corner of her vision caught her eye, the girl brandishing her capture styler in preparation. “So they are powered by psychic types after all,” she commented to herself, and was about to begin attempting to sneak up behind the little psychic Pokémon when a battle cry from behind made her nearly leap out of her own skin, barely with enough time to jump out of the way of the assault by a Mankey who had been concealed upon her entry to the room. She captured the angry Pokémon with haste and happily allowed it to follow along with her deeper into the base, figuring the little guy could come in handy in keeping some grunts and their Pokémon off of her tail for just a little longer. Turned out, the facility itself was nothing more than a rat maze of these psychic teleportation platforms, with the occasional wild Pokémon wandering aimlessly throughout the base- probably once controlled by their knock-off styler tech, but since the bond was missing, were later freed from the control wearing off and were unable to be handled by the incapable lot of grunts that made up the organization. Spanning through four or five different rooms undetected, Solana managed to add two Magneton, a Swampert, and a Wurmple to her crew by the time the first of the grunts had spotted her. “Wh-What?!” The blonde Go-Rock Crewmate had shrieked as soon as she stepped off the teleporter, standing guard and watching down the hallway just for intruders like her. “Why is there a Ranger here?!” And she was stacked, too: with a Scyther, Heracross, and Pinsir all at the ready to attack, flying at Solana in an instant as the woman threw out her arm as the command to sic on her. The teal haired Ranger baseball-slid beneath the Scyther’s high jump swipe, gripping her styler in hand with a determined look upon her face. 

“Capture on,” Solana whispered and watched the Pinsir try to snap its giant forceps at her styler, but she ripped it out of reach and shook her head. “Not so fast!” The girl instructed, barrel-rolling off to the side to avoid the Heracross’s bull charge before whipping loops around it as it heaved heavy breaths in recovery of the run. With haste, the blue bug was calmed, which left her with only two.

Scyther kept jumping and swatting whenever Solana so much as drew a capture line, even if it was a line intended for the Pinsir instead. Growling in frustration, she drew a short line to lure it out to attack, then recalled the capture disc and instantly shot out a new one while it was slashing where the old one had been, hurrying to make three quick loops before the Pokémon could jump away again. Breathing a sigh of relief, she tumbled out of the way of the Pinsir’s forceps once more, missing so narrowly that it successfully clipped a lock of her electric blue hair- which fluttered to the ground where she’d just stood. Solana placed a hand over the ear she’d heard the _whoosh_ in, just double checking the few strands of hair was all she’d lost, then baited the bug type into nipping again, using her long capture line length to encompass both it and its attack altogether: successfully freeing it as well from the Go-Rock mind control. Having one of the Magneton recharge her styler’s power source and sending all three bugs off to their own escapes, Solana turned to the woman and wiped her mouth intimidatingly, shooting her a glare that simply dared her to continue to try and stop her. 

“This means more demerit points…” The blonde muttered, beginning to sweat in a panic. “Arceus, I am in so much trouble…”

“Not if no one finds out,” Solana promised, “as far as I’m concerned, you never saw me.”

Seeing the woman begin to give chase, therefore passing on her cooperative preposition, Solana sprinted and dove onto another psychic teleportation mat, before anyone or any attack could stop her. She landed in a new room in a tucked tumble and arose to her feet once they rolled underneath her, sprung into action with styler in hand now that she’d been discovered. There was no one else in the small room she’d been relocated to: just more teleport pads, back in the maze once more. Her timer of capture having already started, Solana wasted no time picking random pads in the next three empty rooms, losing the woman off her tail, and hoping to find someone else she could defeat and lure into the same trap. She ended up facing a grunt that summoned four Zubat and a Swalot to do their bidding, and instead of capturing the Pokémon, Solana backtracked into the portal she’d come, baiting the grunt out of position to chase down the five Pokémon as they began to pursue the Ranger at all costs. The girl let out a wild snicker as she saw three of the bats follow her through the first portal, then attempt to supersonic her only to end up hitting one another- sending them erratically flying around the tiny chamber with three portals, all rapidly disappearing and reappearing amongst them.

Surely that counted as helpful chaos.

Amidst her gloating, the hefty Swalot appeared and dominated the tiny chamber, shoving Solana stumbling backwards onto one of the platforms she hadn’t yet used. Her momentum carried her through and spilled her out onto the floor just beside a tall podium- if anyone was standing behind it, they were concealed from her view due to how close against it she was, and she from theirs. A muffled and strangled screaming from the epicenter of the large, lab-like room seized her attention, where her long-time partner was haphazardly bound and gagged in silver duct tape. Having spotted her upon arrival, his eyes grew wide and he tried to call out. Solana reached to switch on her communicator function to the live frequency but was interrupted in doing so by a loud laugh to her right, owned by the Go-Rock Squad Commander taking their place on the podium she now sat at the base of.

“FUAHAHAHA,” the voice laughed, finding great enjoyment in Lunick’s apparent struggle. “Finally, our time has come! Our new Styler is finished!!” Solana pressed her back against the white standee, sneaking across the front of it as the Go-Rock Squad Commander went on their soliloquy to what they assumed was their captive audience of one. “Using that outrageous new Styler, the Go-Rock Squad can now capture any Pokémon, whether they like it or not! We will be unstoppable- not even you Rangers can do anything about it!”

The girl made a contorted face to her best friend and used her hand to act out the Commander going on and on, and she could tell from the way his eyes crinkled in the corners he found it funny. Taking their last line as her cue, Solana rolled back and revealed herself in an action-ready pose, prepared for an attack. “You sure about that?” She challenged, very pleased at the shocked look on the evildoer’s face at her surprise entrance into the conversation. 

“ANOTHER?!” The Commander screeched in horror, flicking a switch on their assigned modified styler to direct two enraged Mankey surging in Solana’s direction, along with a Golem that materialized on the teleport pad Solana had merely seconds earlier. Man, was she glad she had the instinct to _move_ , because she did _not_ want to know what happened when a second being was brought into an already-occupied physical space.

Sliding low on the ground out of the cross-attack of both Mankeys’ charges, Solana heard the chuffed exclaim of Lunick from behind her, and shooed him off, shoving him behind a lab table for safekeeping once she was close enough to do so. He wasn’t going to be of any help in his state, and she didn’t exactly have the free time at the moment to help him out of the duct tape shackles, so he’d have to wait here until it was safe. She could tell he would hate this: perhaps one of his worst nightmares was being helpless to assist Solana in a mission. His strangled protests didn’t fall on deaf ears, but it was simply the best plan of attack. She was confident she could take the attacking Pokémon all at once and by herself, and having him out of harm’s way was more important than having him provide assistance.

Standing once again, she called upon her ally Pokémon to help with the aggressive controlled assailants at hand. “Wurmple!” She cried out as she literally leap-frogged over one of the Mankey to avoid its charge. “String shot webs at the two Mankey! See what you can do to immobilize them!”

The little pink worm did as instructed by its new human friend, spitting out meters upon meters of sticky web to tie down the two fighting types as the ground shook from Golem’s stomps. With the two monkey Pokémon now-stilled, Solana made quick work of breaking the control the Commander’s styler had upon them and calmed them from rampage with mere seconds to spare; the webs had enraged the Golem even more than it had been. The rock type Pokémon began spinning rapidly in the air and spitting massive hazardous boulders- creating cracks in the floor as they landed due to sheer weight and momentum. One nearly crushed Solana right beneath it, a little too close of a call for comfort, and she was glad Lunick was shoved on the ground in a spot where he couldn’t have seen it, or he would have done _something_ heroically stupid. She just knew. Still wanting to save her Swampert for a Quad-related emergency should she find herself deep enough in the base to encounter one, Solana flung out her capture disc, waiting for the boulder-assault to cease before whipping it around the Pokémon at lightning speed, pulling back once she felt the familiar buzz of a capture complete. Breathing heavily, she bid all the Pokémon off to their freedom and began to run at the Commander, ready to accost them in the same way they had to her friend just to give them a taste of their own medicine. The Go-Rock Commander, awash with fear at the sight of a Ranger who just destroyed their entire fleet running directly at them, did as any sensible person would do in the face of defeat.

Cowered and ran for the hills, diving onto the teleport pad in which Solana had come from. “And tell Swalot I say hello!” The teal haired girl spat at the glowing green pad, choosing not to pursue in favor of reuniting with and freeing Lunick. Rushing back to the spot she’d left him, Solana knelt by his side, flicking on her communicator signal to give Report. “Hinata: I got eyes on Kazuki. Recovering from captive position now.”

“ _When_ **_don’t_ ** _you have eyes on him?_ ” Chris, of all Rangers, piped in, which was absolutely EATEN UP by the crowd. She could hear Aria and Freddie erupt into fits of giggles on either of their ends.

“Oh, har har,” Solana spoke sarcastically, working first on unbinding Minun, who had been unceremoniously taped flat against her best friend’s back.

“ _I thought we weren’t making recoveries of captives until the end?_ ” Aria remarked, a smug edge to her voice. “ _What happened to ‘he’s a big strong handsome boy, a prince charming that can handle himself’, Solana?_ ”

Even Lunick snickered from behind his taped gag at her clear vamping of the retelling, something that earned him a swift punch in the arm. “You’re putting words in my mouth, and you know it,” Solana defended, “I just happened to run into him. It was extra credit.”

“ _Sureeee it was,_ ” Freddie joined, and Solana turned herself off the live frequency, quite having had enough of her colleagues for now.

The girl placed one of her hands on his shoulder to brace him, knowing that ripping the gag off was not going to be pleasant. Peeling up one of the corners, Solana cupped his cheek for a better grip to keep it in place and ensure a clean rip, mentally counting down with a wince on her face even though she wasn’t the one being harmed. “Okay, okay, here we… GO!” she yanked, and Lunick howled: vocally, now that he was freed. Solana listened to him spit off colorful language as she got to work on ripping through the bindings around his arms and wrists, nothing more than huffing in response to his words until the pain had faded enough for him to become a wiseass about it.

“Arceus, Sol,” Lunick pouted, and Solana was too busy slicing the tape to see the mischievous smile growing on his lips. “That really hurt: dont’cha think you could kiss it better? Pwetty Pwease?” He puckered his lips demonstratively, and his best friend just growled, grabbing the discarded duct tape and surging forward to stick it back on him, deciding she liked it better when he was mute. Lunick let out a loud laugh, his arms freed enough to where he could parry the blow, shaking his head with a wide grin. “I’M KIDDING, I’M KIDDING, I SWEAR,” he pleaded, burning on the spot under her glare and getting another shove.

“ _YOU_ are the reason they act like this!” She accused, which only made him laugh even harder, finding great joy in getting her so worked up. Nearly everyone in the entire region would not _shut up_ about romantic implications between the Ringtown Duo, and it had come so full circle over the months of friendship that now Lunick himself was even cracking the jokes, just to tease Solana and watch her sputter.

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em?” He reasoned, but it came out as more of a question than a statement.

“ **No** ,” the girl insisted, giving up on re-taping his mouth and returning to work on his bounds, which went faster once he had his hands freed and able to help her do so. “Don’t make me regret coming back to save your sorry ass.”

“You’d never,” Lunick called her bluff, grinning that stupid satisfied smile of his as he stood and offered a hand to help her to her feet as well. “By the way, speaking of the rescue, I have a few notes. I mean, did it really kill you to take so long?” The teasing words were thrown back over his shoulder as he crossed over to the podium where the Commander stood and began fishing around in the drawers for his personal styler. 

Solana rolled her eyes and coddled his Minun (who was very excited to see her- even more so to see her Plusle), scoffing in her friend’s direction at the audacity he had. “Oh, y’know, the line at SsssstArbok’s this morning was longer than usual, you know how that is,” she snarked back as if he hadn’t just been a literal hostage, crossing her arms over her chest once the two electric mice had found their way onto either of her shoulders. “And don’t even get me STARTED on the rush hour traffic…”

“Yeah, you poor thing,” Lunick snickered at her quick wit and sharp glare, tearing open another drawer in his search.

“Oh, I’m not done,” Solana retorted, “Another delay was when they told me I just _HAD_ to come clean up your mess, and I was like: ‘Again? Do I have to?’ But here I am, gracious as ever. You’re welcome, by the way.” 

The dark haired Ranger grinned in amusement, shaking his head. “What ever happened to the Solana that used to tell me: _‘Lunick, I was looking for you! I was ordered to assist your mission, but you know what? I would have come for you even if I wasn’t ordered. Teeheehee!_ ’” Lunick feigned a falsetto voice as he re-enacted Solana, producing his styler shortly thereafter.

“She unfortunately got to know you better.” The girl narrowed her eyes at him and he gasped, as if her words physically burned.

“Youch,” he replied with a small laugh, re-accessing his communications and turning it on. “Kazuki, back online. Proceeding with Hinata further into base to resume diversion.”

“ _This is not a date-!_ ” He heard Aria hiss, but shut off his transceiver before anything else came through. Crossing back to his partner, Lunick held out an elbow for Minun to hop back onto his shoulder from Solana’s. 

“ _Solana, Lunick, can you copy?_ ” Spenser’s voice patched through on a private channel to both of their stylers, which they very attentively responded to.

“Yes, sir!”

“Loud and clear!”

“ _Good,_ ” their Leader confirmed, “ _I’m getting close to where they’re keeping the prototype, but need a niiice big distraction to get hounds off my scent. One of the teleport mats leads to a staircase, go find it and start making some trouble down here, if you would be so kind._ ”

“Yes, Leader!” Both of the Rangers saluted at the same time out of habit, and Spenser chuckled at their unison.

“ _Thanks. Over and out_.”

The two Rank 9 Ringtown Rangers exchanged a glance at each other, both relieved to have heard an update from their Leader on the status of his own mission. Solana was first to break the moment, pushing past him and crossing to the lower-leftmost corner of the room, gesturing to the unused teleport pad invitingly. “After you.”

Lunick smiled as he stopped right in front of it, wanting to relish his last few moments of banter before it was time to put their game faces back on. “Ladies first,” he insisted, mimicking her gesture. 

“Then on three,” Solana held out her hand and Lunick took it, both backing up a few steps as they counted. And on three, they both jumped on the portal together, disappearing deeper into the bowels of the evil base.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! I'm certainly out of writing shape so apologies for any awkward prose, but I really wanted to write a fic with Lunick and Solana again- last time I did was a handful of short one shots 2013, and boy are those b a d, so I wanted to redeem myself and put more fiore content into the world again!!


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